Heroes to Hunted

The first day was an uneventful slog. We marched along from the time of our departure to the Sun's. Finally, we concluded our day with the usual routine of setting up camp.

While scouting, we heard a chorus of haunting howls echoing throughout the twilight sky.

According to Mizuno, it belonged to a pack of timber wolves. Based on the low pitch of the howls, she also deduced they were hunting. Knowing that we opted for high ground. It took the form of a tall, mossy boulder with a relatively flat surface.

Of course, sleeping would be uncomfortable on solid rock, even with our animal-skin bedrolls. However, it was better than getting torn apart in our sleep by predators.

Some banter was exchanged before bed, but it was limited to being between the two brothers. The rest of us devoured a portion of our packed rations before sleeping, minus Mizuno.

She had agreed to take the first watch. Then, after a few hours, she'd wake me up, and we would switch. Then I'd swap with one of the Traunt brothers and so forth.

I flattened my bedroll and set my pack/gear aside, minus my armor. I wasn't about to be caught metaphorically naked during an ambush. Likewise, I kept the shortsword I was given within reach.

When I laid down, sleep alluringly called to me. My desire for it was amplified by the natural white noise of nature. Billowing pine trees blowing against the wind and chirping insects became the lullaby that forced me into unconsciousness.

***

The darkness faded away, revealing a rock similar to the one we had perched on beneath me. Only I was alone and the sky was dyed a deep crimson with clouds as black as midnight.

There were no trees, just large, dead towns filled with the broken memories of my past. The rubble was ashen black from being razed by a now burned-out inferno.

Seeing the familiar ruins, a bottomless melancholic pit formed in my stomach. The past four years of my life were ahead of me: just endless fields of lifelessness and ashen destruction.

'Welcome to paradise,' I joked somberly.

I was about to step down from the rock when the shadows above the ground began churning. The darkened smoke swirled and twisted upward into large pillars before each congealed, manifesting into a person.

Old to new, comrades to enemies, all forms of the acquaintances I've formed over my life stared back at me; their eyes were devoid of emotion. Rather than smiles or hateful glares, their expressions were blank, as if they were frozen in time.

There was one main similarity between those that stood before me. Every single one of them was dead. During my campaigns, I witnessed the end of every person here.

"I'm sorry," I grimaced, feeling the onset of survivor's guilt. Some of them I failed to save, others I made it impossible to save. Either way, I was responsible for their deaths.

Suddenly, the blackened ground sparked into yellow flames. It grew high, consuming everything in its wake. Only I, on my large boulder, remained unscathed. Even the specters surrounding me were engulfed by the fire.

However, the dead can't die twice. Instead, they were locked in perpetual agony, doomed to burn for eternity. The once silent space was filled to capacity with the tormented wailing of the damned.

I saw myself within them, the "me" who'd also been reduced to boiled blood and charred skin.

Instinctively, I brought my hand to my chest as I watched a sea of immolated suffering. I held it there, feeling the heavy thumping of my heart within. I was growing increasingly queasy at the sight before me.

Beyond the unease, I felt relief. Relief that I wasn't amongst them, safely out of the flame's reach. "I'm safe... I'm safe..." I whispered to myself, but I spoke too soon.

The burning shadows snapped their necks upward, glaring at me. Then, like a hivemind with a single objective, they swarmed toward me. Their ashen fingers gripped the rock, leaving smoldering palm prints as they climbed up to the top.

My breathing became sporadic, and my eyes flashed with panic as they approached.

"No... No, stay back..." I slowly backed away from the rock's edge, centering myself on it as much as possible. Given how I was surrounded, there was nowhere left to run.

Their cracked, flaking fingers eventually grasped the rock's edge as they pulled themselves up, one by one.

"STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!" I frantically began kicking the fallen souls back to the depths of hell.

I winced in pain every time I struck them; their burning faces seared the soles of my feet whenever I kicked them. But the pain was nothing compared to the terror within my heart. I had to survive dammit!

"YOU WON'T TAKE ME!" I hoarsely shouted while hammering away at the relentless hordes.

Sadly, my struggle was a losing one. Despite my efforts, I soon became entirely overrun by an army of burning phantoms. The black haze of smoke exuded from their immolated skin, forming a large, darkened cloud above.

They reached for me, clawing at me however they could.

"NO! NO!!! STAY AWAY! PLEASE!" I kicked in their legs, cracking the bone to stun them. I threw my fist repeatedly, knocking more of my attackers to the fiery pits below. I did everything I could to survive. I had to survive!!!

I pulled my arm back for another strike, only for it to get caught. With widened eyes of shock, I turned to see the platoon I had died with. They returned my gaze through horrifically disfigured faces. Their flesh was pieced back together through a series of grotesque cauterizations.

"Let me go!" I tried to yank away, but it was too late. Soon my skin was branded by the grips of dozens of flaming hands.

I matched their agony, screaming from the pain of my flesh sizzling off.

They pulled me by the legs, forcing me to fall to my face, and dragged me toward the rock's edge. They aimed to haul me back to where I rightfully belonged. They sought to cast my sinful soul into the depths of hell.

Upon realizing their intentions of hauling me into the fiery pit below, I resorted to begging. "Please, please, please, stop. Don't! DON'T!!!" Tears from the fear of being roasted again broke down any semblance of pride I had.

I clawed into the rock as deeply as I could, desperate to stop them. However, that only accomplished the tearing of my fingernails. Ten streaks of blood trailed after me as each nail snapped off.

'Not again! NOT AGAIN!' I struggled and clung to the rock's edge by my bloodied fingertips. I pulled myself against the weight of a thousand souls. The muscles in my arms spasmed and tore from overuse, but I still held on. I couldn't die. Not here. Not like this!

However, the weight of my past was too heavy in the end.

I couldn't help but cry helplessly as I felt my fingers slip away, one by one, from the rock. When I finally lost my grip, I saw my countrymen. They replaced where I once stood on the rock, staring at me with distrust and contempt.

"Please! For fuck's sake, help me!" I reached for them, hoping they'd return my desire to protect them in kind. Only they turned away, leaving me to my fate.

There was no time to experience betrayal, not before I felt the familiar sting of fire on my flesh. I was stuck in a storm of raging flame, and as I fell, the inferno fed on my body, converting my flesh into fuel to grow larger.

Again, to my terror, I became a human torch.

I burned for what felt like an eternity. The pain was constant enough that it dulled, and my body became accustomed to it. My mind was on the brink of fracturing to pieces...

Then a voice reached into my subconscious and pulled me from my hell.

"SATO!"

My eyes sprang open, and I awoke to see Mizuno shouting at me. She was drawing in deep blue orbs of magic with a worried expression.

Likewise, the Traunt brothers and Barik stood as far as they could away from me and stared at me in confusion.

'What are they looking at?' Maybe I was screaming in my sleep from the nightmare.

But that wasn't it at all.

They weren't focusing on me because I was loud. No, they were focused on the unnatural brightness surrounding my body. I looked down to see my bedroll and clothes had totally burned away. In their place, a raging fire cloaked my body.

"What is this?!" I stood up and frenziedly attempted to put myself out. "What the hell?! WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?!"

"Stay still!" Mizuno shouted while she finished charging. Water was condensing from the air into large translucent orbs. "Your mana is out of control! I'll put you out; you just need to stay still!"

I tried everything possible to comply with her order, but my fear overrode my will. "Fuck that!" I shouted and leaped from the rock to the mud below.

When I landed, I rolled recklessly across pine needles and moist dirt to extinguish the fire.

But the mud wasn't enough. The flames burned hotter, searing the ground and any twigs on the floor. The whole time, I was shouting and bawling like an inconsolable child. "Help me!!!"

Following my screams for help, Mizuno finished stockpiling energy. She threw her hand toward me, loosing a torrent of water in my direction.

Her magic engulfed me, snuffing out the untamed flame until every bit was just a very terrifying memory.

Afterward, I was soaked to the bone, and my naked body was bared to the world, but I couldn't care. The fire was finally gone.

I kneeled within a muddied puddle, and tears formed in my eyes. They were tears formed from intense relief. 'I'm okay... I'm okay... I'm okay.' I tried calming my ragged breathing.

I brought my mud-covered hand to view. Though my clothes and bag were reduced to ashes, my flesh was left unharmed, just like what happened in the tower with Weiser.

Except this time, the flames belonged to me.

"What the hell is happening to me?"